Perhaps more than most of us, Stephen Slack and Mark Richline understand what it means to be an adopted child of God. That’s because both were adopted as infants by godly families in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Now their own families belong to the OPC.

We are planners. At the Sallade home, we think and we plan. Then we think and plan some more. We have five-year plans, ten-year plans, family goals, and multiple possible future budgets, all carefully crafted to take into account any possible contingency.

Our daughter’s fussing started this summer just as we reached the summit of the Siskiyou mountain range that divides California from Oregon. Home was on the other side of the country in north-central Florida, far from the lofty mountains of north-central California.

But a family reunion still farther north in north-central Oregon had us driving along Interstate 5 from Los Angeles to Portland on this seemingly endless northern trajectory. We had been driving for some fifteen hours, and we were all tired. We were at that particular stretch of highway known to be among the more treacherous routes in the entire interstate system because of its sharp descent of 2,300 feet in the span of about seven miles. By the time we had descended into Medford, Darya’s fussing had turned to intermittent bouts of full-on screaming, and there were still many miles to go. Read more

Have you ever wondered why some pastors have a more positive relationship with their congregation than do others? Have you ever tried to analyze the factors that make one pastor deeply loved by his parishioners, while others seem only to engender doubt and disagreement?

Being a pastor in today’s church can be a very trying experience. One need not travel far or live long to realize that many churches today, of all denominational stripes, are experiencing much disagreement and conflict. Read more